Stanislas Normand is Managing Director of Exotec North America, responsible for accelerating the adoption of the company’s warehouse robotics solutions in the North American market. During his tenure at Exotec, Normand held multiple positions and played a key role in the company’s rapid international expansion. He holds a master’s degree in economics and finance from Ecole Polytechnic, France.
Q: Stan, what are your thoughts on the current state of the material handling automation market?
A: Despite the long-term and ever-changing list of challenges that warehouses face now and in the future, we expect customer demand for everything from faster shipments to consistent order accuracy throughout the year to continue to grow. .
We can see that the main challenges facing brands today are labor shortages, cost pressures and uncertainty.
- Labor shortage: Although supply chain challenges have eased, labor availability remains a major issue.
- Cost Savings: In this uncertain environment, customers are increasingly looking for cost savings to prepare for macroeconomic fluctuations.
- Uncertainty: Customers are increasingly demanding flexibility as they want to respond flexibly to business changes and external factors.
Supply chain disruptions and labor shortages won’t go away anytime soon. Companies have no control over these growing challenges, so it’s important to focus on the controls they have: finding solutions to combat them. Warehouse robotic solutions lead the fulfillment industry by offering the best combination of performance and flexibility to reliably meet and exceed customer order expectations.
Q: Now that you have been appointed Managing Director, what are your expectations for Exotec in the North American market?
A: With the growing demand for warehouse automation, my team and I are growing our presence at NA to provide solutions to build warehouses where people work smarter, not harder, through robotics. Emphasis.
In March 2023, the company hit the 5,000 robot milestone in record time, just three months after reaching the 4,000 robot milestone. This achievement represents the rapid growth of Exotec’s manufacturing capacity and the growing demand for his Exotec products. We have already made great strides in making warehouse work less physically demanding. Thanks to the Exotec robot, the warehouse worker no longer has to walk more than 16 million miles.
In December 2022, the company officially opened Exotec’s North American headquarters in Atlanta. This will support and facilitate our growing business in North America. North America is expected to account for 40% of Exotec’s global business by 2025. We are focused on growing our company. This includes his goal of doubling the number of employees by 2024.
Q: Your background is in economics and finance. How does that experience apply to your current role?
A: A background in economics is useful in any industry, but especially in sales and operations positions. It provides a set of tools for understanding market mechanics and the drivers behind their growth, allowing companies to use that knowledge to their advantage.
Amid the current post-pandemic supply chain disruptions, global inflation and labor shortages, it is important to understand how these challenges can be leveraged as business opportunities for Exotec despite its uncertainty. , important in leading our business in North America.
Five years of experience across various roles at Exotec has given me a deep technical understanding of our products and how our solutions can impact our customers. This helps you make quick decisions in a fast-moving competitive environment.
Q: Is your approach to automation different in the European and North American markets?
A: Despite differences in culture and business norms, many warehouses around the world face similar challenges. They want reliability, efficiency, and adaptability in their warehouses, and robotic solutions can help them achieve it. Our approach to automation is consistent across geographies as our solutions are equipped to adapt to any warehouse, regardless of need or size, but our ability to customize solutions to meet customer needs It allows us to do business with impact all over the world. .
Q: What advice would you give to someone looking to launch their first automation project?
A: Warehouse automation helps customers find answers to common problems within their supply chain. These issues range from lack of resilience in an uncertain environment to difficulty scaling in fast-growing markets. My advice to anyone looking to build more automation into their operations is to get serious about understanding what problem you’re trying to solve. Not enough storage space? Is it a throughput limit? Are they understaffed? Robotic systems offer versatile and versatile solutions to many typical operational shortcomings, but they do not all address the same problems. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the solution you choose is the best fit for your specific needs.
The second piece of advice I can offer is to look for solutions that minimize disruption to your business. The first automation project can be daunting for organizations that have to adapt to new ways of working while adapting to new technologies. This often requires a strong change management approach. With this in mind, the best solutions are often the ones that make the most of technology, implementing simple interfaces and intuitive user experiences while delivering significant improvements. Reduced installation time is also a big advantage in reducing the impact of interruptions.
Q: How will the rapid development of AI and machine learning affect future automation and robot designs?
A: Rapid advances in AI and machine learning are impacting many industries, and robotics is no exception. It’s easy to see that AI/ML has the potential to create more intelligent, adaptable, and effective robots. What’s hard to tell right now is whether AI has a real purpose or role in today’s warehouse robotics, where perfection is so important. AI may not yet be stable enough for business-centric use cases like warehouse robots.
